Parted
by Emurlee
Summary: When your only love is arrested, convicted and taken from you, what do you do? (See, no spoilers here- readreview if you have time!)


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A/N: This goes out to everyone who cried when poor Gil died in Lady Knight. I don't really need to tell you that this is a one-shot, but I will anyway. It's short, and a bit odd, because I wrote it when I was exhausted, and in less than an hour, so be nice. A review or two would be good. =) _Also sorry if I got some details wrong- I don't own a copy of Page, so I was writing about the results of the bandit fight from memory._

And if you cry, you get a choc-chip cookie and a packet of tissues :)

The alarm sounded. Men rushed to their horses. Too few, really.

"I have to go," he told her.

"Come back," Eria whispered, her blue eyes wide. He nodded quickly and, kissing her swiftly, left. Eria watched him hurry after his comrades, chewing a fingernail in worry. She was always frightened when he had to leave her. They weren't married, not even betrothed, but she loved him. She wasn't sure if he felt the same way. After all, he was a good eight years older than her twenty-five.

She always worried after him. It was in her nature. But today, how dangerous could it be? With old Breakbone Dell at the head… Nobody would get hurt with Breakbone leading. And her love was a good, solid fighter. He had hardly ever been hurt before. Still, she fixed the memory of his serious grey eyes and his black hair in her mind. Just in case she never saw him again. In case he died out there. It had happened before. Her brother, a bandit like all her family and friends, had been killed in a short scuffle with trespassers. But that had been when Quicksnap had been alive, and he had never been a good leader. Not like Breakbone Dell. Not like Eria's love, Gilab Lofts.

She retreated into her 'home', the tent she shared with her squalling baby niece Niia, the daughter of her dead brother and his wife, who had been killed in a fall from the nearby cliffside. Eria hated being forced to look after the baby. No man would be interested in a young woman with a child already, even if it wasn't her own, and Gil had never shown any interest in marriage as it was. She wished he would. If he asked, she'd accept without any hesitation. She prayed every night that he would ask her before he died in battle…

The bandits were arrested that very day. Eria caught one glimpse of Gil, alive and well, before he was taken from her sight.

~o~

Eria cradled her son in her arms. He would be a good, strong lad, like his father used to be before work in the mines weakened him. She hadn't known she was expecting, that night they were all arrested. Because she was caring for the baby Niia, she wasn't put to work like her love. Most of the children were taken to be looked after by others, but Eria was allowed to keep her niece. She wasn't even marked with the glowing circle that most other bandits received. She knew she was lucky, lucky her sister-in-law had died. She was even allowed to see the father of her son every now and again, because of the simple facts she was a mother, alone in the world with two young children to care for, and she was so in love with Gil that he haunted her every thought. They were going easy on her because of those facts.

Her son had the same grey eyes as his father, but he had Eria's thick tawny hair. She could already see the resemblance to Gil, and it pained her, more than she could say.

Niia began to wail, and she hurried to pick the little girl up.

~o~

Fort Steadfast was nice, though nothing compared to her lovely little village. She had started a new life with her son and niece, in a pretty village near the Scanran border, where nobody would bother her for her background. The villagers were nice, and some of the men had attempted to court her at first, but her heart already belonged to someone else, someone she would not see again.

For seven years she lived in this village. Then, when the war became too troublesome to bear, the whole village were evacuated to Steadfast. She had heard that convicts were being taken from the mines to fight, and all the way to the fort she prayed that Gil would be there. Her heart almost broke when she realised he was not. She still prayed for him at night, praying he was alive, praying he would not forget her.

Her son, Gilen, grew more like his father every day, in looks and personality. His eyes were the same. His hair fell in exactly the same way his father's had the last time Eria had seen him. Gilen even had the same manner of speaking. It still hurt to look at him, even after seven years. It probably always would. She wondered if Gil remembered his child, and the woman who had loved him so many years ago.

Then one day she heard news. Gil was serving at Haven, the new refugee camp. She wasn't permitted to go and visit, but the news that he was alive was enough. She had been training hard, to defend Steadfast, and she wasn't going to leave now, though if she had been permitted, she knew she would have done. Eria still prayed for her love every night and every morning, as she had for the last seven years.

~o~

She pushed her way through the crowds, frantically trying to get to the person she could see. They parted reluctantly.

"Lady knight!" she cried over the noise. Keladry of Mindelan reined in her horse and looked directly at Eria.

"Yes?" she asked, seeing the desperate despair and anguish in the woman's blue eyes.

"Begging your pardon, milady, but— Gil? Gilab Lofts? Is he…" She knew, really; she had felt it happen. But she had to know for certain. The Lady Knight's face twisted with grief.

"I'm sorry. He died."

Eria bowed her head. "Thankyou, milady."

"He was a good man," Keladry told her gently. "We were friends. I am sorry. I didn't want to get anybody killed."

"I believe it of you, milady," Eria replied miserably, retreating back into the crowd with an ironic salute to the knight. It was as she had feared. She had felt him die, like a part of her heart- her soul- had been torn away the moment his spirit left him and went to the Black God's realms. But she hadn't been able to rest until she had found out for sure. Keladry of Mindelan was the right person to ask. Eria was hugely thankful the Lady Knight had come this way. Now she knew for certain: the only man she had ever loved, and ever would love, was dead.

~o~

"Black God, grant him a place in sunshine and freedom," she whispered, kneeling beside her bed. "Do not punish him for his former crimes. He has paid."

"Mama?" She turned. Her son, Gilen, stood in the doorway. He was seven years old now. "Are you praying for Papa?"

"Yes," she replied, her voice choked and her eyes filled with tears that spilled over as her son watched. She held out her arms, and Gilen ran to her. "Papa's dead," she whispered. "He died."

Gilen, who had barely known his father, began to cry too.

~o~

Niia and Gilen, adults now, were at Eria's bedside when she was dying. She was not all that elderly, in her early forties, but her heart was failing, and she had been weak for some time now. Now she was virtually delirious.

"Gil," she murmured, half-asleep. "I'm coming. I'm coming, Gil…"

Then a last breath slid softly from her lungs, and Eria Fairsbrook went to join her only love in the realms of the Black God. She had only lasted eleven years without him.

~o~

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He waited there, one hand outstretched to her. Eria's legs ached, and her heart pounded, but she did not stop running, and as she ran towards him the years fell off her until she was twenty-five again, and he was exactly the same as he was before he was taken to the mines. She reached out and took his hand, and at last happiness almost overwhelmed her. They were together at last. He lifted Eria Fairsbrook's hand to his lips and kissed her fingers, his grey eyes filled with the love that had been there all along.

Hand in hand, Gil and Eria Lofts walked to their home of sunlight, warmth and tranquillity, together at last in the Realms of the Black God.

~*~ The End ~*~


End file.
